‘Critical Infrastructure Building Activities Will Put India On Par With US, UK In Two Years’: Nitin Gadkari

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari has expressed confidence that in the coming two years, the government's focus on the building of critical infrastructure through an integrated approach will place India among the league of advanced nations like the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK) and Australia, reports Times of India.

"Given the pace of work on critical infrastructure including strategic tunnels, bridges and highways, I am confident that whatever work we are doing...in coming next two years you will see a changed India. Roads, tunnel and bridges which we see in in the US, UK, Germany and Australia, the same kind of work will be seen in our country," the senior minister reportedly said.

Elaborating on the critical infrastructure which would lead to the manifestation of the ambitious goal, Gadkari shared that these include a number of strategic tunnels and bridges, and also 22 green expressways which the nation is pursuing.

The 22 green expressways which are estimated to cost Rs 3.1 lakh crore, once completely built, these would lead to 7,500 kilometres of top-notch expressway roads crisscrossing across different parts of the nation. The work on seven of these landmark expressways has already begun. These include the much-talked-about Delhi Mumbai Expressway which alone is set to cost close to a lakh crore rupees.

Gadkari also shared that plans are afoot to tap the full potential while building newer highways by laying optical fibre, power transmission lines and gas pipelines under them. A large number of industrial clusters have also been planned along these expressways, shared Gadkari.